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April 2005
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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| Retiree Never Too Old for Creativity, Peace Activism
“This is my job,” says the peace advocate, founder, and coordinator of the Dove Campaign, a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to fostering nonviolent peace-building environments for children. In this role, Forney has spent the last four years working with local schools and churches in Newburyport, Mass., to build peace, literally, through Kids as Peacemakers mural projects that local children make, displayed in the community for all to see. “I’ve been a peace advocate for quite a long time, and that really is what drives me, trying to find ways to resolve conflicts short of violence.” A typical week for Forney and his band of a dozen volunteers includes phone calls to local merchants who might donate materials, outings to pick up such materials, and meetings with fellow Dove Campaign volunteers – and other organizations – to promote the group’s mission and positive message. “Another fellow and I delivered five sheets of plywood this morning,” he says, laughing about his “retirement” schedule that includes such tasks.
Not satisfied with just talking about violence, the committee then asked each family to turn in a violent toy. Those children who turned in their toy guns, swords, knives, etc., were given a new, nonviolent toy by local merchants who Forney and others on the committee convinced to donate to the good cause. “We got about 500 toys [from] 300 kids,” says Forney. Next thing he knew, the simple one-time project became a series of nonviolence activities, the efforts got some national press, and other nonviolence advocates got involved. When Forney and his wife moved to Massachusetts to be closer to their grandchildren and told people what they’d done in Maryland, the Dove Campaign was born in 1999. Now, many murals, and several violent toy turn-ins and family play days later, Forney estimates he’s distributed more than 6,000 copies of a document outlining nonviolent toys to local families through the schools in several school districts in New England. He and about a dozen helpers have worked with superintendents, teachers, churches and community leaders to “talk about peace and peaceful living.” He got Adelphia Cable to donate many hours toward producing a DVD about the Dove Campaign, and local resident, Emmy-award winning ABC reporter Jay Schadler to narrate it.
Forney’s latest efforts involve trying to get the national arm of the Exchange Club, of which he is a local member in Newburyport, to adopt the Dove Campaign’s peace initiatives nationwide. “It’s the oldest service club in the country,” he explains. Forney notes that he was a nontraditional evening student while at AU, making 74 trips between campus and Harrisburg where he was working to attend classes and get his degree. If such an attitude is any indication of his determination to keep this peace project going, many more school children – and their families and communities – should be hearing about the Dove Campaign for years to come. “We’re always looking for more people to get involved,” he says. “We’re looking for a Web designer right now.” For more information on the Dove Campaign, contact Forney at 978-388-3955 or dovenbpt@verizon.net. -Melissa Reichley
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Retirement agrees with Merle Forney, SPA/MA ’62. But think again if you imagine the Silver Spring resident of 35 years, now living in Amesbury, Mass., has been just lounging around the seaside since he left his long career in public service.
Forney got started on his peace-building initiative in 1994 when he was still living in the D.C. area. He and his wife were members of a church in Columbia, Md., whose pastor gave a series of sermons about violence and challenged the congregation to come up with a year-long program to reduce violence. “I was on a committee, and we came up with the idea of getting parents of young children to talk about violence.”
May is Peace Month in Massachusetts, explains Forney, and that means school and church groups in Northeastern Massachusetts are painting “Kids as Peacemakers” murals depicting peace on 4 x 8 foot sheets of plywood, and displaying them through Labor Day. Three years ago, 11 schools participated; two years ago it was 18, and last year, 34 schools participated. Forney expects 40 or more schools to be involved this summer. “Art teachers and conflict resolution teachers really like this,” says Forney, who wants to share the project with as many other communities as possible.